Did Loki fake his death? How did Loki take the throne? Where’s Odin now? What happened to to Heimdall?

Between the fans on Tumblr venting their confusion, and the google search terms that come up daily on God of Mischief’s webstats, there’s a helluva lotta folk out there who really want to understand what the Hel was going on up in Asgard while Thor, Mjolnir and Malekith were busy playing inter-dimensional tag.

At this stage, the answers produced by the fandom are built almost entirely on supposition and rife with contradiction. Marvel have left a lot of story open for speculation between now and Thor 3. - Probably so that we can come up with the answers for them.

Anyway, let’s try and get these questions answered. Bear in mind, I really am trying to cover the basics of speculation here. I mean, I did end up typing out a 50,000 word novel outlaying various theories on Loki’s death, sincerity and redemption arc, but that’s an article in itself. (I’m not kidding. I’ll be posting it once I’ve had 8 hours sleep and a chance to proof-read it.)

What happened with Loki’s ‘death’?

There are varying opinions on how this happened; namely on whether he faked his death on purpose or just mistakenly failed to die by accident. Or perhaps a bit of both.

His skin did go all blue marble colour-shifty as he lay dying though, didn’t it? How strange. Why did this happen? I don’t even think Marvel knows, though it may have something to do with his Jotun heritage, or perhaps a reaction to the Kursed blood on the weapon that ran through him.

How Loki died and whether or not he faked it is just too big a topic to address in one post. .. Let’s move on before I give it a try! (Edited to add: Check out the FAQ which as more detailed analysis on the subject of Loki’s death, as well as a great deal many other things.)

How did Loki seize the throne this time?

So, whether by design or accident, Loki survived his ‘death’, shape-shifted into an Ass-guard and returned to Asgard. Sorry about what I just did there. So, so lame.

It really was quite fortunate for Loki that Odin sent out that guard to find out what became of his son/s, because it gave the trickster a perfect opportunity to [probably] murder the guard, take on his form, then return to Odin under the guise of Loki-posing-as-guard, to deliver the Allfather news of his own death.

*phew – that was a mouthful*

In this scene they were alone, but something occurred for Loki to take Odin’s place shortly after this. Which leads to the next question of…

What happened to Odin?

That above-mentioned scene was the last we saw of Odin. What happened next took place off-screen, leaving his fate open to good old fandom speculation.

The main theories are that after Loki-posing-ass-guard informed Odin of his own death, the Allfather collapsed into Odinsleep, or died – either by natural causes or by the hand of Loki himself. Loki then stashed him somewhere, took Odin’s form and with it, his throne.

Given that there were *Clues that Odin was due to nod off one way or another throughout the movie, my guess is that the old fella fell into a Convenient Odinsleep after receiving the news of Loki’s death, and then Loki-posing-ass-guard casually helped himself to the throne. I mean, someone had to do it, right?

While it’s plausible that Loki murdered him, it’s unlikely such a dramatic event would happen off-screen. Besides, there’s still a lot of *issues* between the two that need resolving… damnit… Not that Marvel seem to care much for character building.

The more plausible answer (imo) as to what’s happened to Odin, is that he collapsed by natural causes. Perhaps Loki dropped the guard facade and yelled at him again?

Why a Convenient Odinsleep is more plausible than murder:

Between the news of his foster son’s death followed right on the heels of Frigga’s death, Thor’s rebellion, the attack upon Asgard, and Malekith’s plan to turn off all the lights, plus the fact that he was obviously frail and ready to drop off anyway… It really was a favourable time for Odin to fall into Odinsleep or suffer a heart attack. Thus allowing Loki to grab opportunity by the balls and step up in his place.

Besides, Thor 3 will be more dramatic if it turns out Odin still lives and has been squirreled away somewhere.

*Clues of Odin’s impending sleep/natural death:

He was getting frail – notice the way he doubled over at one point when challenged by Thor? He wanted to pass the throne over to his heir since like, two years ago. And finally, his age. He was nearing 5000 years old. Bear in mind, Loki mentioned in his opening scene that an Asgardian’s life-span is ‘give or take 5000 years’.

Bonus extra – an answer to the question that wasn’t asked: What happened to Heimdall? Won’t he know Loki’s faking it?

Heimdall is conveniently out of Loki’s luxurious free-flowing mane, because shortly before this went down, the Gatekeeper was arrested for treason and (presumably) marched off to the cells. This was an order carried out by Odin, back when he was in fact Odin.

Loki-posing-as-Odin can now keep him there to rot if he likes, and no one can argue. Treason is treason, right?

Please feel free to add your thoughts and opinions in the comments! Unless you’re just trying to sell me new shoes or knock-off handbags, in which case… No.

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have you considered that Odin knew that loki was the guard? there’s two interpretations of that conversation he had with the guard.
the guard said we found a body and odin replied “loki”
it could mean that odin had a feeling that loki WAS the body without the guard having to tell him so or it could mean that odin was saying “loki shut the fuck up i know its you, you sick little shit.” notice the look on odins face when he says loki and notice the little smile on the guards face. this was like witty bantering between villain and hero at the climax of a movie only its done only through eye contact. it was like ehehehe i got caught oh well i guess i’ll have to kill dad now. which shouldn’t be too hard given that he’s already weak and dying and all. so maybe a combination of the two. odin is weak and loki uses that to his advantage to kill him since you know odin is the most powerful being in a ll the universe. and who knows loki better than odin. he raised the damn kid he knows the stunts loki pulls. i dont think he was falling for it for one second.

God of Mischief is a fansite for the Marvel character Loki, as portrayed by Tom Hiddleston. It's also a hub for info relating to Thor The Dark World and the upcoming Thor 3.

Here you will find a showcase of Loki-centric meta articles, fan fiction, multimedia, and a boatload of Thor 3 speculation.